Mike,
Its these skeletons in the Microsoft software that somehow remains un-advertised while companies like Novell take it on the chin. Even the industry trade press when they do these "so called" detailed technical reviews appear to down play or even ignore the Microsft weaknesses and yet have little trouble touting the weaknesses of the other competing products.
The non-technical readers who know little of the topic blindly believe that the Microsoft software is the best software out there - when rarely is that the fact.
For the technically well-read on all the products, we get the impression that the trade press does not want to bite the hand that feeds them. After all, what is Microsoft best at and puts a lot of its budget towards? Advertising! Just take a gander through any issue of PC Week, PC Magazine, Network Computing, etc. and count the amount of and size of the Microsoft ads. If I were running any of those magazines, I would also be very careful on criticizing Microsoft products to abruptly. I would do as they tend to already do, mention the Microsoft weaknesses quietly, tactfully, or just don't mention it at all.
To paraphrase a reader response on a survey regarding Novell vs Microsoft software. He said that for anyone that knows that two products (NetWare and NT) the better technology is NetWare hands down! But its clear that most companies that are deciding to follow an NT solution or migrate away from NetWare, the decisions are being made by upper management (CIOs CFOs IT Directors) that dont understand the limitations of the NT technology and are simply basing their decisions on the trade press or the IT direction DeJure. They are like Lemmings.
A related article cited the Hallmark Corp. example where its a NetWare shop, but Microsoft flies down the senior management to Redmond for a briefing. Sounds so much like the old days of IBM marketing whereby if you can't beat your competition by your superiority in technologies, then influence/pressure/FUD the senior management into selecting your products. After all, the techies know the real truth and Microsoft won't have much of a hope at that level - so bypass them.
These CIOs, CFOs, and IT Directors should be doing what they were paid to do: analyze business requirements and produce IT requirements that would address these business requirements. They should then pass these requirements down to their IT Architects/Specialists (or even an external consultant) to develop the best IT Technology strategy that addresses these IT requirements, which in turn will address the Business requirements. They must stay out of the selection of technology and leave it to the experts!
When will companies go to the basics in developing IT strategies.
1) Identify & prioritize their BUSINESS requirements.
2) Develop & prioritize IT requirements that best meet the Business Req.
2) Identify technology strategy options to meet these requirements.
3) Objectively analyze the pros (benefits), cons(risks), and costs (in particular Operating costs or TCO) for each options.
4) Select the strategy option that best meets these requirements with
the best NET benefits to the company.
Our company (I have been involved in many myself) has performed these IT strategy processes and an NT file/print or Pure NT option for that matter almost never shows up as the best option.
Lets throw out a scary thought for some people. Novell technology will not sink into oblivion! NT will never take over the world to the point that Novell software could simply be thrown out. Even Banyan, who has never had a marketshare that has ever reached double digits, is still being used by fortune 100 companies. What is the likelihood that Novell products would experience this fate. Yet I can't believe how many companies are going NT simply because they fear Novell will not be around in 5 years. Complete and utter FUD and garbage!
It has been very frustrating for me to see how some companies make these critical dicisions based on FUD and industry trends and not based on what their company truly needs.
The good news is that the trade press is starting to come out of its fear of Microsoft and is beginning to slowly pull the skeletons out of Microsoft's closet to show the world. This is thanks in big part because of the readers that are being vocal to the press and industry on how this has been supressed in the past. But we have a long way to go before the real truth on the technology delta between NT and its competitors appears more frequently.
Sorry Mike for going on a huge Soapbox Gospel, but, if nothing else it makes me feel better to vent.
ToySoldier
PS to Paul: You wanted to know what IBM software (Java/CORBA) goes against Microsoft's NT strategy of mutated Java and DCOM.
Go to the following site to get all the info you want:
software.ibm.com |
